The netbook market has been booming with the poor global economy sending consumers looking for cheap machines. The economy is starting to come back now, sales of notebooks are picking up, and at the same time the iPad has hit the market and is beating the netbook for the dollars of many buyers.

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Analyst Katy Huberty from Morgan Stanley has issued a report that claims the iPad is significantly hurting the netbook market. According to Huberty, the iPad is gobbling up a lot of netbook sales and she shows the chart above to demonstrate how sales of netbooks have dropped since the iPad was announced.

I am sure the iPad alone isn't responsible for the sharp decline in netbooks sales. People with more money to spend are likely buying better machines as well. There is still room for growth this year in the netbook market though and some analysts predict double-digit growth in the segment.